Anyone who has learned to play the guitar knows that private guitar lessons can get really expensive. Rock Prodigy aims to take the private guitar lesson experience and bring it to a simple format for iOS at an affordable price. The app has over 150 lessons, exercises and other downloadable content that will help aspiring rock stars learn the basics and hone their skills on their own.

I’ve played the guitar for several years but I’ve become very stagnant in my progression for lack of formal instruction. An app like Rock Prodigy would have been very useful back when I was learning to play. The app does a very good job at taking students from the very basics from tuning all the way to learning to play cords. There is also some theory that is taught along the way, which is helpful for any new guitar player. The learning format is very simple and it set up much like the popular game, Rock Band. The screen displays a scrolling neck of a guitar with all six strings. Numbers appear representing the fret that needs to be plucked. Like Rock Band, there is a bar that moves down the neck and each note is plucked once the bar reaches the note. There is some very helpful voice instruction as well that takes students through each lesson. I like how the app is able to pick up on how well the student plays and tells them how they are doing. The app also includes a tuner to be able to tune both acoustic and electric guitars. However, students will need an additional plugin accessory for the headphone jack to be able to use their electric guitar.

The first two lessons within Rock Prodigy come preloaded in the app. Once those lessons are completed the app prompts users to set up a free account to be able to download additional lessons. There is a lot of free content to download once an account is set up. I’m surprised at how detailed and thorough the lessons are. There is a reason this app is $19.99. Rock Prodigy is a premium app that merits a premium price for all the content that it offers. Once students go through all the lessons, popular rock songs are available to download and learn at $3.99 each. I’d say this price is a little steep but again, the instructions are thorough and very detailed so I can see why they carry this price tag.

There are other self-learning guitar apps in the App Store, but Rock Prodigy shines above them in my opinion. There was a considerable amount of work put into it to make sure that it offers students helpful instructions that actually help them learn to play. I’d recommend it to any beginner looking to improve their skills.

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iPad Screenshots

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